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David Harcourt
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Posted: 28 Jan 2007 11:56 pm |
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Darcy is away but has given me complex instructions about the three strawberries which he has managed to grow over the "summer".
In accordance with the first instruction, I now publish this photograph:
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jaybee2003
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Posted: 29 Jan 2007 01:54 am |
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A Wellington Strawberry!
And the remaining instructions???
I would like to think one involves you sampling...
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David Harcourt
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Posted: 29 Jan 2007 05:36 am |
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Well, my instruction was to eat this one but it has passed its eat-by date as far as I'm concerned so it has gone into the bin, BUT at least I have recorded its existence in a semi-tangible way. This may save me.
My instructions about the other two strawberries from this bumper crop are to save them if they will last until Sunday (when Darcy returns to Wellington, God save us all), or eat them otherwise.
I'm on a loser whichever way I go because:
* first of all he's going to ask for a detailed explanation of why I didn't eat the rotting one
* second of all he's going to be annoyed if I don't eat the others and they then rot and are wasted (which in this sub-tropical climate, with its nightly thunderous downpour, might well happen)
* TOA, the frickin' birds are probably going to get to the damned things before they're ripe, anyway
This has been "Joys of Parenthood", #346736769872457 in a series.
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jaybee2003
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Posted: 29 Jan 2007 07:00 am |
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Hmmmm 6 days of heat to go?
If they still have some whitish colour on them, I'd be picking them tomorrow morning and trying keeping them in the fridge. Living so far from the shops, when I buy strawberries, I buy the greenest ones I can find and they're usually ripe for eating in 4 - 6 days.
Otherwise, eat them (and now I've said that you can lay the blame on me) and buy a punnet to share on Sunday. He can gaze at the recorded evidence of his home grown ones while he devours his share.
My strawberry crop this year has been pathetic. The worst ever. Hardly any and very stunted odd shaped fruits, so I am impressed with Darcy's. My raspberries though produced masses. I was having to get up earlier than sparrow fart to try beat the birds, or so I thought, until the day I discovered it wasn't birds, it was my stepson.Attached Image (viewed 180 times):
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jaybee2003
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Posted: 1 Feb 2007 02:27 am |
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How's the strawberries?
It's cold enough here today to prevent anything from ripening. I feel cheated! I finally gave in mid afternoon, switching my shorts, t-shirt and sandals for a jersey, long trou and warm slippers. It is COLD!.
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David Harcourt
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Posted: 1 Feb 2007 05:48 am |
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The strawberries are unchanged. Unripe and unappealing.
I looked at the supermarket's stock today but they're far too ripe. By the time my family get back to Wellington the strawberries would have been well on the journey towards strawberry jam. I will buy a punnet at the last minute and use it as necessary to get through the impending crisis.
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David Harcourt
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Posted: 3 Feb 2007 12:27 am |
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| I took pity on the other two strawberries (below) this morning and picked them before the birds got them. Attached Image (viewed 164 times):
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rupert-bear
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Posted: 18 Feb 2007 08:16 pm |
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Well we grew about 20 strawberries this summer, sorry I can't show you a photo but I can say they tasted far better than the shop ones - maybe the lack of chemical fertilisers?
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jaybee2003
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Posted: 18 Feb 2007 09:14 pm |
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rupert-bear wrote: Well we grew about 20 strawberries this summer, sorry I can't show you a photo but I can say they tasted far better than the shop ones - maybe the lack of chemical fertilisers?
You are so right - they do taste fabulous...for those who were able to grow strawberries this year.. something I am SO envious of!.
The imported strawberries (off season) have no taste at all. One day I will learn not to buy them, but I must have a short memory or be ruled by my stomach.... I see, drool and buy...then regret.
How many people wash bought strawberries before they eat them?
My SIL hit the roof one day when she was here and I was hulling (bought) strawberries - unwashed...."I have picked strawberries" she said, "If you knew what went on, you'd never eat them unwashed..."
I still don't wash them...
Blind faith.
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David Harcourt
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Posted: 19 Feb 2007 03:17 am |
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jaybee2003 wrote:
"I have picked strawberries" she said, "If you knew what went on, you'd never eat them unwashed..."
Some messages posted here seem to take one backwards, rather than forwards, in the sense that I have more questions afterwards than I had before reading them.
WTF goes on in strawberry patches that should leave one in mortal fear of eating an unwashed strawberry?
I have worked my way (mentally, you understand) through a schedule of bodily substances, trying to imagine how these might get onto or into the fruit, but I have failed.
Do people copulate - or worse - in strawberry patches?
I think we should be told.
No, on second thoughts, maybe not.
Personally, since reading George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris & London many years ago (in which Orwell describes his experiences as a kitchen hand in, I think, Maxim's), I have always thought that anyone who had the faintest idea about what really goes on in a restaurant kitchen would never eat out again. Now it seems that the same stricture applies to fruit.
Where will it all end, I hear you cry.
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jaybee2003
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Posted: 19 Feb 2007 09:57 am |
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David Harcourt wrote: jaybee2003 wrote:
"I have picked strawberries" she said, "If you knew what went on, you'd never eat them unwashed..."
No, on second thoughts, maybe not.
Wise. I also decided I didn't want to know and didn't dare question further. However I did douse them with Black Balsam before serving - at 48% proof it would surely kill anything nasty...
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jaybee2003
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Posted: 19 Feb 2007 10:33 am |
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An aside - and because it amuses me...
Riga Black Balsam - if you are unfamiliar with it, is a national Latvian drink, a gift from our Latvian DIL the first time we met when son David brought her out to NZ. In Latvian tradition it is given as a gift - as the biggest gift of friendship, so one we were pleased to receive.
It is described as being"deliciously different" - and different it is. Being polite and not wanting to insult our new DIL, we sat down with a glass each, son David refusing one, sitting back watching us and his new wife - and laughingly announcing just as we prepared to take our first sip..."You might like to know I call that stuff Black Shit.. Enjoy...."
So we took our first caution sip - neat on ice on DIL's recommendation - and ohh boy! David wasn't wrong! But not wishing to offend our DIL we had no choice but to manfully sip on.
DIL tells us it is often drunk as a tonic. That I can believe. One little nip and no matter how bad you thought were feeling beforehand, you will soon realise you weren't feeling as bad as you thought afterall.
However it is nice in very small amounts as an ice-cream topping, or as a drink with champagne, creme de cassis (blackcurrant) and ice. One bottle will last us a life time - of that I am sure. My brother wants the bottle for his stone bottle collection - I have told him I'll have to Will him the bottle and the remaining contents.
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David Harcourt
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Posted: 19 Feb 2007 10:44 pm |
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Yes, yes, but what does it taste like?
And what is it made of?
Google discloses the following:
Riga Black Balsam is a strong, dark, scary Latvian booze made from a centuries-old secret recipe of things you can find in the forest. It has the consistency of crude oil and, to the untrained tongue, the bitter flavor of death, but Black Balsam is an acquired taste that pays off big. The first sip will make you shudder, but when you take your second sip and taste the hints of linden blossom, birch bud, valerian root, and raspberry, you'll see that it's really the flavor of life itself. In addition to its potency as booze (alcohol content: 45%), it's also said to have medicinal qualities, which, speaking from experience, means that it can make you well when you're sick, and sick when you're well. In the photo at right, the bottle on the left, with Latvian writing on top and Russian on the bottom (and the Riga skyline in the background) is about 20 years old, while the bottle on the right, with English on the label, is more recent. My sources complain that the Balsam made recently is a watered-down version of the classic beverage. They blame the company's new ownership. After tasting the new stuff in the shot glass pictured, I can't really say for sure if it's the same or different, but it's still excellent, complex, warming, and mellow, and definitively worth trying if you have a chance.
The recipe was originated by Abraham Kunze, who, in the mid-18th century, concocted it from the medicinal recipes of 16th- and 17th-century Riga apothecaries. According to folklore, Empress Catherine the Great of Russia was cured by drinking Black Balsam after falling ill during a trip to Latvia, so it's got that going for it. And it comes in a thick brown ceramic bottle that, once emptied, would make a pretty nasty blunt weapon, but it's much better used as a funky candle holder.
I prefer to drink my Black Balsam (in Latvian it's called Melnais Balzams) neat, but some people think the flavor can only be improved with the addition of something, anything. To them, I suggest the simple recipe I learned from my friend Karlis Freibergs in an apartment in Old Riga in 1992: Balsam mixed with hot water and sugar, served in a coffee mug. Most bars and liquor stores in Riga will have it, and the factory gives tours too. So try it. Don't be afraid of the dark.
I like that touch about Black Balsam being improved by "...the addition of something, anything".
I suspect that the additional thing which would improve it best would be the Atlantic Ocean.
In another thread this morning I have referred to the fundamental unwisdom of jumping from high places (with or without a string tied to your leg), attempting to fly (with or without an aeroplane), and so on and so forth.
Drinking Black Balsam sounds to me like the equivalent of a glass full of bungy jumping.
So is this what life comes down to, is it? The big choice is whether to be a wally or a wuss. Wallies have more fun, but wusses live a lot longer, so they have more time not to have fun in.
Wuss?
Or wally?
Wally or wuss?
Quo vadis?
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jaybee2003
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Posted: 19 Feb 2007 11:15 pm |
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~chuckling...~
A very good description indeed.
I especially love "And it comes in a thick brown ceramic bottle that, once emptied,...." - the 'emptied' inferring to me that it is tipped down the sink, or as you suggested into the Atlantic, rather than drunk.
We will have to organise a tasting session for you so you can judge for yourself....
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David Harcourt
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Posted: 20 Feb 2007 12:51 am |
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Something to really look forward to, that will be.
So far as your own use of this stuff is concerned, you have so far said that you use it to kill bugs and other effluvia on strawberries, in lieu of washing them.
This is how you see me, huh?
David Harcourt - the stock library photograph:
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jaybee2003
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Posted: 20 Feb 2007 01:23 am |
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Good to see at least one library keeps their archives well maintained.
I also said it was nice used as an ice- cream topping or as a drink with champagne... so.. eeny meeny miny moe....
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jaybee2003
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Posted: 11 Jun 2007 10:17 pm |
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This last weekend's DomPost Indulgence section carried an article on strawberry growing. The advice there was to plan strawberry plants before the shortest day. Which was a surprise to me - I usually plant/replant in the spring.
"Planting now gives earlier and better crops."
So, I might give it a go this year and see what happens. I had offered some compost mix for Darcy. If you want to go with the early planting - let me know and I can have it with you well before June 21st. I have a dentist appointment this Monday - and yes - I still travel over the hill to my old dentist. After trying once, I won't go near the local dentists!.
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David Harcourt
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Posted: 12 Jun 2007 07:02 am |
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Darcy would be over the moon to get some compost for his strawberries.
Thanks so much for the thought, Jo.
Are you going to be in town at lunch time on Monday?
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jaybee2003
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Posted: 12 Jun 2007 09:26 pm |
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David Harcourt wrote: Darcy would be over the moon to get some compost for his strawberries.
Thanks so much for the thought, Jo.
Are you going to be in town at lunch time on Monday?
Yes, We will be. We have an appointment in town here early morning and expect to hit Wgtn around 12.30.
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David Harcourt
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Posted: 12 Jun 2007 11:15 pm |
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[Approaches topic slowly.]
So are you free for lunch?
[Decides 'To Hell with it: ask the question.']
How about lunch?
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